2024 Civil War Institute Summer Conference

Command Decisions at Chancellorsville (Beth Parnicza)

Although the Battle of Chancellorsville has long been famous for the decisions of Confederate leadership, Union high command played an equal--if not greater--role in the battle's development. Examine the battle through the eyes of Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Hooker, and Union corps commanders! This dine-in will consider key turning points of the battle, what influenced Union officers in making decisions, and the often-sassy reactions of officers and soldiers alike. We will read the contemporary thoughts and reactions of major players, followed by an analysis of Joseph Hooker's own reflections on what history remembers as his great defeat

“Mirror-Mirror”: 2 Civil War Newspaper Editors in the Postbellum Era (Bob Baumgartner)

Mirror Mirror is the examination of Texas Newspaper editors John Rankin and AH Bello. While both men served the Confederacy, they were in opposite theaters but came to be editorial opponents in Texas after the war. This dine in will trace the men's lives from the war to their days as newspaper men and their effect on the historical memory of the Confederacy.

“Yours Affectionately, Osgood”: An Abolitionist Soldier’s Letters Home (Ryan Keating & Sarah Tracy Burrows)

Osgood Vose Tracy volunteered to serve the 122nd New York State Infantry in August 1862 and began writing home to his widowed mother on September 3. A well-educated young man, Tracy offers his opinion on pressing social and political issues of the time, including his definite abolitionist sentiments; ruminates on the Union war effort and its campaigns; and demonstrates his deep commitment to family as well as his sweetheart, Nellie Sedgwick, back home. Tracy's expansive letter collection, which concludes at the end of the war and was interrupted only once - during his capture at the Battle of the Wilderness, imprisonment, subsequent escape, and trek North - was handed down through family generations and compiled for the book, Yours Affectionately, Osgood, by his great-great granddaughter, Sarah Tracy Burrows, and paired with illuminating discussion and historical context from noted Civil War historian Ryan W. Keating, who will use these letters as the focal point for the dine-in discussion.

“Loyalty and Service” to Whom?: Unpacking One Enslaved Man’s Service to the Confederacy (Christopher Young)

Clark Lee, a locally enslaved resident of Walker County, Georgia, was brought to war by his enslaver's brother-in-law, a mere a few weeks before the Battle of Chickamauga. He was awarded a Tennessee State Pension in 1923, but was it for his service to the Confederacy or for the "loyalty and service" to the one who enslaved him? This discussion will walk through the various historical documents used to answer Lee’s question of service.

Meade’s Pursuit of Lee After Gettysburg (Brad Gottfried)

Using some primary sources as a launching point, we will discuss and analyze the factors contributing to Meade's decisions in the days after Gettysburg. What were the impacts of a "wounded" Union army, an inexperienced commander, a still formidable enemy army, and the worry of a defeat after a great victory?

The Lowry War, 1864-1872 (Jaime Martinez)

This dine-in will focus on the guerilla campaigns of Henry Berry Lowry and his tri-racial band of followers against the North Carolina Home Guard, local Klan units, and a combination of local, state, and federal government authorities in the last eight months of the war and into the Reconstruction era. We will look at contemporary newspaper coverage and also accounts from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to understand not only what happened, but also how the events were commemorated and remembered in Robeson County, North Carolina, where the Lowry War is a defining feature of local identity and the political origins of the Lumbee Tribe.

Memory Writing: Prisoner of War Narratives, Their Construction, and Their Uses (Angela Riotto)

This dine-in will introduce three narratives written by American Civil War prisoners of war from during the war, immediately after, and at the turn of the century. These short, but revealing and often entertaining, narratives reveal how former prisoners of war thought about their imprisonment and how they consciously sought to construct a story from memory. We will also talk briefly about memory studies and what it brings to the study of the Civil War.

Experiencing Food: Food Systems and Feeding the Confederate South (John Martin McMillan)

This dine-in will focus on feeding the Confederacy. When the Civil War began, many Confederates believed their agricultural production would be a source of power helping to enable military victory and national independence. But by the war’s end, food riots, high prices, and malnourished people plagued the Confederacy. Issues across the entire food system—production, processing, distribution, and consumption—created an environment where maintaining sustenance became a fraught experience of the war. Examining illustrations, newspaper articles, Confederate government documents, and letters and diaries, this discussion will explore how people across the Confederacy acquired food and why some experienced food shortages while others managed without extreme need.

Friendship and Leadership Amongst Naval Officers (Laura Lawfer Orr)

In this dine-in, we will discuss an 1862 letter from Rear Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee to Admiral Louis Goldsborough, focusing on what this letter helps us understand about the friendship between officers and how these relationships may have affected their leadership of the Navy during the Civil War.

The Ethics of the Civil War (Aaron Sheehan-Dean)

We will discuss the formal measures taken by both armies to set rules around lethal violence in the conflict.  These include the Lieber Code and army general orders.  We will also discuss the ways that citizens, soldiers, and politicians on both sides integrated peace-time practices of moral decision-making (drawn from religion, custom, or law) into the war.

The Union 2nd Corps at Gettysburg (Tim Orr)

Gettysburg enthusiasts! Put on your greatcoat, roll up your sleeves, and join Dr. Timothy Orr on a two-day walking tour focusing on the history of the Army of the Potomac’s 2nd Corps. This tour will cover the thrilling tale of the 2nd Corps’ march to Gettysburg, its combat action on July 2 and July 3, 1863, and the fate of its casualties. After Gettysburg, the 2nd Corps veterans received (and often took) the bulk of the credit for the Army of the Potomac’s victory. This tour will explore the competing interpretations concerning the 2nd Corps’ performance. Did Hancock’s veterans rightfully deserve the glory they claimed, or did they demand too much at the expense of others? Most importantly, this tour will tell the stories of the officers and men of the 2nd Corps and it will take visitors to the places where these men fought and died: the Rose Wheat Field, East Cemetery Hill, Plum Run, the Copse of Trees, the Bliss Farm, the Angle, and Ziegler’s Grove. Prepare to walk the ground where over 4,300 2nd Corps soldiers fell and to pay respects to those who gave their lives for the Union cause. This tour will involve moderate- to advanced-level hiking, primarily conducted on foot (but it will traverse long distances by bus). This tour will follow roads and trails, but it will occasionally traverse fields. Some stops will be without shade. Please prepare accordingly. Wear appropriate clothing, bring water, bring sun protection, and bring insect repellent. Lunch will be provided during the second day of the tour. Come join the CWI’s 2024 “active track” package, don your finest trefoil, and pay the rebels back for Fredericksburg!

Dan Sickles and his “Commanding Ground”: The Debate and the Legacy (Jim Hessler)

The so-called “Meade Sickles Controversy” remains among Gettysburg’s most heated debates. On the morning of July 2, 1863, General George Meade expected General Sickles’s Third Corps to extend the left of the Army of the Potomac’s developing position and occupy a certain “range of hills” on the left flank. For reasons that are still argued by Gettysburg historians, Sickles instead advanced his Third Corps toward the Emmitsburg Road and nearly jeopardized Meade’s entire defense. What exactly were the orders to Sickles? What position was he supposed to occupy? Why did he advance? What was the impact of his actions? Find out the answers to these Sickles-themed questions and more! Join Licensed Battlefield Guide, podcaster, and award-winning Sickles at Gettysburg author James Hessler as we assess the terrain Sickles was supposed to occupy vs. the ground that he chose instead to defend against Longstreet’s sledgehammer assault. This tour will require light walking.

Maryland, Whose Maryland?: Opposing “Free Staters” at Gettysburg (Ashley Luskey)

Perhaps some of the least-thought of participants in the Battle of Gettysburg, Marylanders played a critical role not only in the defense of Culp’s Hill, but also in the attacks against it. A divided, truly “border” state of Pennsylvania in every sense of the term, Maryland fielded both Union and Confederate troops who would eventually clash directly against each other on July 2nd and July 3, 1863. Yet, the ranks of neither Maryland’s Union and Confederate regiments were hardly traditional, consisting of slaveholding Unionists, home guard units, and color-bearing cousins serving opposing sides. Who were the men who comprised the rank and file of these enemy “free staters?” Why did they cast their political and military lots with one side or the other, and how did each side conceptualize what “their Maryland” should look like in the future? How did they react to fighting their own statesmen in the largest battle of the Civil War, and how would they—and the American public—represent that ironic clash in the post-war years of memorialization and commemoration? This tour will explore these and other questions as we walk the ground were Marylanders, North and South, faced off in a violent and chaotic struggle over control of Culp’s Hill. The tour will involve between 1 and 2 miles of walking over mostly paved surfaces, but also over several hilly slopes.

“On A Great Battlefield”: A Photographic Exploration of the Evolution of Cemetery Ridge (Jennifer Murray and Michael Waricher)

This tour will examine the evolution of the commemorative landscape during the eras of the Gettysburg Battlefield Memorial Association (1864-1895) and the Gettysburg National Military Park Commission (1895-1933). During this period, Cemetery Ridge evolved as one of the battlefield’s main arteries, providing access to the newly established battlefield park. In July of1863, Cemetery Ridge served as the heart of the Army of the Potomac battle line, thus a natural location for the erection of scores of monuments and commemorative features. Relying on historic photographs and imagery, this tour will showcase the evolving nature of Cemetery Ridge and Gettysburg National Military Park. This tour will begin along the northern spine of Cemetery Ridge and conclude near the Pennsylvania Memorial. Walking distance approximately 1 mile over flat and even terrain.

“Perry’s Brigade on my right gave way and shamefully ran to the rear”: July 2nd and the “Real” High Water Mark at Gettysburg? (Lewis Trott)

July 2, 1863 perhaps presented the real “high water” point for the Confederate Army at the battle of Gettysburg, when Ambrose Wright’s Brigade stormed towards Cemetery Ridge. Brigadier General Wright created controversy by blaming others, most notably the Florida Brigade, for the failure to take the ridge and dislodge the Union Army. This tour will explore the actions of Wright’s Brigade, along with those of the Florida Brigade and examine the post battle controversy involving charges made by Wright against others for the failure of the assault. The tour will cover approximately 1 mile of walking from Seminary Ridge to Cemetery Ridge using pre-existing park-mown paths

Benner’s Hill and the Fight for the Union Right Flank (Troy Harman)

Benner’s Hill is one of the least-visited and least-discussed locations in Gettysburg National Military Park, but its role in the battle was critical. Throughout this easy, half-mile walk along the crest of Benner’s Hill, we will discuss the movements and actions on the Union right for all three days of the battle. We will also unpack the pivotal nature of the hill in completing Union operations and securing logistics.

A Battle Storm in the Shenandoah Valley: The Battle of New Market (Sarah Kay Bierle)

The Shenandoah Valley experienced multiple military campaigns during 1864, including the Union's spring offensive that culminated at the Battle of New Market on May 15, 1864. Here, Union General Franz Sigel—a German American immigrant—clashed with the Confederate General John Breckinridge—a former U.S. vice president. On the streets of the village, across the slopes, and in the muddy fields in the shadow of New Market Gap, Union and Confederate soldiers battled for position and cause as the rainy weather turned the fight into regimental level tactics and the generals began to lose control of the situation. At the heart of the last Confederate charge, the Corps of Cadets from Virginia Military Institute made history and memory...and paid the same tragic prices as the veteran units beside them and fighting them. 

Put on your walking shoes and plan to "march" about 3.5 miles over sloping fields as we explore leadership decisions, soldier and cadet accounts, and fateful outcomes in the fields and streets of New Market to gain a deeper understanding of the strategic importance of the Shenandoah Valley during the war and in memory.

Monday, June 10, 9:30 am – 5:30 pm

Bloodshed on a Border: A Beginner's Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, June-July 1863 (Rachael Nicholas)

Union and Confederate forces clashed at Gettysburg for three days in July. The battle was one facet of a larger campaign that began in early June when Robert E. Lee decided to invade Pennsylvania. The town of Gettysburg existed at the confluence of ten major roads, many of which crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, the traditional border between the free states and the slave states. On this eight-hour program, CWI attendees will study the basics of the Gettysburg Campaign: why it occurred, the significance of where it occurred, the key moments of July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, and its impact on local civilians. Attendees should bring water and sturdy walking shoes. The tour will involve around three miles of total walking.

MONDAY, June 10 Hybrid Tours, 9:30-6:00 (2 hours of class work, lunch 11:30-1, 5 hours of touring)

The Citizens’ War: Sharpsburg and Shepherdstown during the 1862 Maryland Campaign (Jim Broomall)

Participants in this hybrid tour will first interrogate a variety of primary and secondary source materials in the classroom. From Southern Claims Commission petitions to personal correspondence, from printed lithographs to private diaries, participants will consider destruction to the built environment, interrogate how citizens interacted with the Antietam battlefield, and examine a military campaign from the perspective non-combatants. We will then journey throughout Maryland and West Virginia to visit historic structures as well as walk preserved landscapes and private lands. Please note that the field portion of this program will be walking intensive.

A City of Hospitals: Frederick, MD After Antietam (Jake Wynn)

In the late summer and fall of 1862, Frederick, Maryland became ground zero in a military medical revolution. Major Jonathan Letterman, Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac, instituted a new military medical evacuation plan that reshaped how the US Army took care of its wounded and sick. The tour will highlight the dramatic aftermath of the Battle of Antietam and the Battle of South Mountain, as surgeons, nurses, and civilians raced to save as many lives as possible amid the carnage of the Maryland Campaign in 1862. In the City of Frederick alone, more than 8,000 patients were treated in more than two dozen makeshift hospitals. This program will include a walking tour of hospital sites in Downtown Frederick. The tour will include up to 3 miles of walking in Frederick.

J.E.B. Stuart's Cavalry and the Road to Gettysburg (Scott Mingus & Eric Wittenberg)

 This tour will explore the actions of General J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry actions in the Gettysburg Campaign, particularly in the lead-up to his long-anticipated arrival on the Gettysburg battlefield. After a morning session discussing Stuart’s strategy, tactics, and overall role in the campaign, the group will head out to seldom-visited, but critical sites in Westminster, Maryland, Hanover, and Hunterstown to explore the stories of one of the Gettysburg Campaign’s most controversial cavalrymen on the ground upon which he fought. This tour will involve minimal walking.

Chambersburg, PA: From John Brown to the 1864 Burning, Tracy Baer

The classroom discussion for this program will cover a brief history of the founding of the “Conococheague Settlement” that would become “Chambers Town”, and later Chambersburg. A description of the town’s important location and growth from its beginning to the years leading up to the Civil War will be provided. With 2024 being the 165^th anniversary of John Brown’s 1859 raid on the Federal Armory at Harper’s Ferry, VA, a portion of the presentation will cover Brown’s presence in Chambersburg where he planned much of that ill-fated action. We will also discuss the important meeting in the area between Brown and abolitionist Frederick Douglass discussing the famed raid.

We will then move into a discussion of the Civil War years, including the Union army’s presence, the Cumberland Valley Railroad’s role in the area for the Union army, and the three Confederate occupations of the town. As 2024 also marks the 160^th anniversary of the burning of Chambersburg by Confederate forces, much of the presentation will be devoted to this topic. We will also explore other various other Civil War activities in Franklin County, including General’s Lee’s march that would take him to Gettysburg, the “Wagon Train of Wounded,” and some basic information on the Battle of Monterey Pass, both during the retreat from that battle.

The walking tour of Chambersburg will consist of approximately one mile through the downtown area to see what few pre-war buildings remain and compare modern views with the post-burning photographs. The walk will be primarily over sidewalks and paved surfaces and typically takes between two and three hours. A walk-through tour of the house where John Brown stayed may be included. Note: The day of this tour will be a weekday, so downtown businesses will be open and traffic volume may be high, therefore certain stops along the route may need to be altered accordingly. There are limited opportunities for restroom stops.

America’s Ways of War and Leadership: Cambridge to Cemetery Ridge (Ethan Rafuse)

This tour will look at how what happened at Gettysburg reflected debates over America’s “way of war”.  On 3 July 1775, George Washington formally assumed command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The Virginian’s efforts in the decades that followed would make him, in the famous words of Robert E. Lee’s father, “First in war, First in peace, and First in the Hearts of his countrymen.”  Washington’s efforts also contributed to fierce debates over how Americans would defend their republic and who should lead their armies.   This staff ride will visit sites around Gettysburg where the influence of those debates on what happened on the battlefield were evident.  It will be preceded by a classroom seminar on the evolution of the American way of war from 1775 to 1861 and how it influenced early war debates over the ways and means of conducting the “great civil war” that would in turn influence what happened at Gettysburg four score and eight years after Washington took command.  Estimated walking will be moderate.

Civil War Photography and the Adams County Historical Society (Ron Perisho & Tim Smith/Andrew Dalton)

This 2-part program will explore the history, evolution, and impact of Civil War photography, as well as the lived experience of Gettysburgians caught in the crossfire of battle. Using original (and often rare) images from Ron Perisho’s private collection, the morning discussion will examine the various mediums and uses of photography during the Civil War era; the careers of both well-known photographers such as Matthew Brady, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Alexander Gardner, as well as lesser-known, Gettysburg-based photographers; and the impacts of photography on the American public during the war. The afternoon session will allow attendees to tour portions of the new Adams County Historical Society, including the “Caught in the Crossfire” experience, and will feature a talk by historian, Tim Smith about the battle’s impact on the local population, ACHS Director, Andrew Dalton will also lead attendees through a special, behind-the-scenes tour of portions of the museum’s archive.

Artillery at Gettysburg (Keith Bohannon & Dana Shoaf)

This tour will focus on the employment of Confederate and Union artillery on the southern end of the battlefield on July 2 and 3, 1863.  The first tour stop will be at the Peach Orchard to discuss the role of Union batteries there in punishing the Confederate infantry attacks launched to the south across the Emmitsburg Road.  We will then proceed to Confederate Avenue and discuss the role of E.P. Alexander's Battalion and other Confederate batteries in the action.  These walks will involve a minimum amount of walking on largely level ground.  

The second part of the tour will focus on Union artillery batteries, primarily those that composed the Fifth Corps artillery brigade, commanded by Captain Augustus Martin.  The proposed tour stops will include Little Round Top and/or the surrounding area, and artillery positions north of Little Round Top along Sykes Avenue.  This portion of the tour will involve moderate walking of several hundred yards on NPS trails. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 11 GETTYSBURG HYBRID TOURS (4 hours of fieldwork, lunch, 3 hours of classwork):

“I never saw General Meade so angry if I may so call it”: The Fight of the Third Corps, July 2, 1863 (Jennifer Murray)

This hybrid tour will concentrate on the fighting of the Army of the Potomac’s Third Corps on July 2, 1863.  The morning battlefield component will examine the position of the Third Corps line with multiple stops to discuss the fighting in Devil’s Den, the Wheatfield, the Peach Orchard, and along the Emmitsburg Road.  The afternoon classroom session will allow participants the opportunity to read and examine primary sources from officers and soldiers in the Third Corps.  Arguably, July 2, 1863, was the most defining day in the history of the Third Corps and by combining a battlefield tour with the primary sources from the soldiers and officers themselves, this program will provide a better understanding of one of the Battle of Gettysburg’s most controversial moments.  Estimated walking (in total) one mile over mostly even terrain.

The United States Regular Army at Gettysburg (Zachery Fry)

The vast majority of the Union Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg consisted of volunteer soldiers, but the presence of long-term professional soldiers in certain infantry, cavalry, and artillery units provided a hardened core of experience to the nation’s citizen army. This tour analyzes the experience of the U.S. Regulars in the fighting on July 2, particularly their role in helping to cover the withdrawal of embattled troops from Sickles’ front near the Wheatfield, as well as the story of United States artillery batteries in the defense of Cemetery Ridge. Approximately 1-2 miles of walking expected.